Ten Days Later - Venice
She wasn't invited.
That's what made her go.
The gala was hosted by the Albani family-rivals-turned-investors, recently tied to the Valentinis in a blood-stained deal that was barely holding. Her father refused to attend. Giovanni stayed behind in Rome.
So Isabella arrived alone, draped in obsidian silk, diamonds at her throat, fury in her chest.
Because Leonardo was going to be there.
And he hadn't called in four days.
---
She found him in the grand ballroom.
Laughing. Talking.
Surrounded by men in sharp suits and women who looked like champagne-dripping lies.
And at his side?
Alina Cassano.
The Russian ambassador's daughter. Too perfect. Too smug. Her hand curled around Leonardo's arm like she had a right to it.
Isabella froze.
Her world didn't just shift-it shattered.
Because Leonardo didn't look surprised.
He looked comfortable.
He didn't pull away.
Didn't blink.
Didn't even look in Isabella's direction.
---
She downed a glass of champagne.
Then another.
Then she walked right past him, ignoring the ache in her chest like it was just another designer clutch.
But the pain didn't stop.
It twisted.
It roared.
Because when she turned, she saw Alina lean up and whisper something in his ear.
And Leonardo-smiled.
Not like the wolf he was with her.
But like a man.
A man entertaining options.
---
Isabella lost it.
Not in front of him.
But later-on the terrace.
Alone.
She slammed her clutch into the stone wall.
Sank her nails into her palm.
Felt that kind of pain that doesn't bleed, but breaks.
And then-
> "You followed me," came a voice behind her.
She turned.
Leonardo.
His tie was loosened. His jaw tense.
> "What the hell was that?" she snapped.
> "That," he said calmly, "was a business arrangement."
> "She had her hands all over you."
> "And you weren't even supposed to be here."
Her voice cracked:
> "You smiled at her."
He blinked.
Silence stretched.
Something shifted behind his eyes.
> "You're jealous."
> "F**k you."
He stalked toward her.
> "Say it."
> "No."
> "Say you were jealous or I'll make you scream it."
> "You don't get to do that," she hissed. "You don't get to disappear and then parade around with another woman like I'm just-just-"
> "Just what?" he growled, backing her against the wall.
> "Just another body?"
> "You think I could touch anyone after you?" he snarled. "I haven't f***ed anyone in months. I can't even breathe if I don't know where you are."
She stared at him, stunned.
> "Then why did you smile at her?"
Leonardo's jaw clenched. His hand slammed against the wall beside her head.
> "Because I wanted you to feel it.
The way I feel every time I imagine him touching you.
Smiling at you.
Sleeping next to you."
His voice cracked-
"I wanted to watch you burn."
---
And she did.
That night, she burned for him.
Against the wall. In the car. On the floor of her suite with her dress bunched at her waist and his voice wrecked in her ear as he kept saying:
> "Mine."
"Mine."
"Mine."
After the gala - Her hotel suite, Venice
The room still smelled like sex and sweat and fury.
She was on the floor, half-dressed, legs trembling, her hair clinging to her neck in damp waves. He stood above her, jaw clenched, pacing like a man on the edge of violence.
Neither spoke.
They didn't need to.
Every breath, every bruise, every kiss-they were all still screaming.
But then he grabbed his coat.
And she saw it-the flicker.
He was going to leave.
Her heart stopped.
> "No," she whispered, voice raw. "Don't."
He didn't turn.
> "Leo," she said again, louder this time. "Don't walk out that door."
> "I need air," he muttered.
> "No. You don't."
He froze at the door.
And then she said it.
Her voice broke.
> "If you leave me, I swear to God-
I'll kill myself."
Silence.
Total silence.
His hand on the doorknob didn't move.
But his body did. It stiffened.
Like her words had stabbed through his spine.
> "Don't f**king say that."
> "I mean it."
She stood now, barefoot, barely covered, eyes wild.
"I can't do this without you. If you leave me again-if you vanish like you always do-I'll walk into the ocean. I'll take pills. I'll crash the car. I don't care how-just know I'll do it."
She was shaking.
And for the first time-
So was he.
> "Don't say that," he said again, but his voice was wrecked.
> "Why not?" she spat. "You want me addicted, obsessed, broken-well, I am. I can't eat. I can't sleep. I can't f**king breathe without you."
> "Isabella-"
> "Say you'll stay."
> "I can't-"
> "Then I won't survive it."
---
He snapped.
The door slammed shut behind him.
He stormed back across the room, grabbed her face in both hands, and crushed his mouth to hers like she was oxygen and he'd been drowning for hours.
> "Don't you ever say that to me again," he growled against her lips.
> "It's the truth."
> "No. It's not. Because you're not going to die."
He kissed her again, deeper this time, trembling.
> "You're going to live. With me. Even if I have to kill the entire f**king world to make it safe for you."
She broke down in his arms.
Not from weakness.
But from the brutal, terrifying relief of finally knowing-
he loved her back.
Not in silence.
Not in stolen nights.
But loud.
Dangerously loud.
The kind of love that promised:
> "If I lose you... I'll burn cities."
3:42 a.m. - Her hotel suite, Venice
They were both on the floor.
She clung to his chest like it was the only thing holding her together.
And he held her like she might vanish if he loosened his grip for even a second.
No more words.
Just breathing.
Just being.
Like two people too destroyed to speak,
and too in love to stop holding on.
---
Eventually, he lifted her into bed.
Didn't dress her.
Didn't touch her again.
He just wrapped her in blankets and pulled her into his arms like she was something sacred.
For a long time, she thought he had fallen asleep.
But then he whispered-
> "I used to think I'd bury you."
She blinked, eyes burning.
> "What?"
His fingers slid through her hair.
> "That this would end with you dead. And me... drinking myself blind somewhere on a yacht, pretending I never knew your name."
She didn't speak.
> "But now-"
He exhaled.
"Now I want something I never thought I'd want."
> "What?"
> "A future."
Her throat closed. She turned in his arms.
> "With me?"
His voice broke.
> "Who the f**k else?"
---
He kissed her then. Soft.
Not to own. Not to dominate.
Just to feel her.
To let her know that even if everything else burned,
she was the thing he'd go into the fire for.
> "You're not dying, Isabella."
"I won't let you."
"You live. For me. With me. Until the end."
She buried her face in his neck.
And whispered the first thing that felt true in days:
> "Then you can't leave. Not even once. If you disappear again, I won't survive it."
> "I'm not going anywhere," he said. "You're mine now. You said it. You swore it."
> "And if someone tries to take me?"
> "I'll kill them."
---
Outside, the sky turned violet.
Inside, they fell asleep tangled in sheets, breath, sweat, and everything they couldn't admit to anyone else.
And for the first time since the beginning-
They both believed
maybe
they'd survive this.
Together.
---